Monday, May 17, 2010

3:17 PM

Terrence Wall said today he believes it's too late for Oshkosh businessman Ron Johnson to enter the GOP primary field for U.S. Senate, saying, "If you really cared about the future of this country, you would have been looking at this last fall."

The Madison developer said that not only does Johnson not have enough time to build a campaign to take on U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, but that he's missed the critical Lincoln Day season for local GOP affiliates throughout the state. Wall said he's visited some 60 counties so far in the campaign, hitting dozens of Lincoln Day events along the way.

"I do think it's going to be very difficult for any candidate to jump in the race this late," Wall said in a conference call with reporters. "You cannot replicate the Lincoln Day Dinner slate. ... Those groups of people are not going to be getting back together again."

Former Gov. Scott McCallum, who announced his endorsement of Wall Monday, told the conference call that Wall's work on the campaign circuit was a key reason he agreed to support him several weeks ago. McCallum said he backed Wall on his own merits and regardless of Johnson's long-rumored announcement.

"It's because of his economic approach in large part," McCallum said. "He understands the private sector."

John Kraus, a senior adviser to Feingold's campaign, said Johnson's entrance into the race wouldn't have any impact on the Dem's approach to winning a fourth term. He also said none of the four Republican candidates have offered any plans to deal with the problems they seein Washington, D.C.

"They’ve got their slogans down. They’ve got their sound bites down. They’ve got their attacks down," Kraus said. "But none of them have put forward any solutions, none of them have put forward any plan on spending, jobs and the economy, health care, foreign policy, you name it, nothing."